The Nationals toyed with the forces of mojo Thursday night at Nationals Park, trotting out their rarely-used red, white, and blue alternate jerseys for the players, and letting the racing presidents don their traditional period uniforms for the first time this season.

It didn’t work.

The Nats’ normally solid defense fell apart early, committing 3 errors, and Teddy Roosevelt delivered one of his weakest races of the season. Even after cheating and cutting the outfield corner, the original Rough Rider never challenged front-runner Thomas Jefferson.

The Battle of the Beltways starts Friday. Look for the Orioles to bring their creatively-named mascot The Bird to Nationals Park for a third year of presidents race-related hijinks.